Moreau de Saint-Méry's Early Description of Voudou, 1780s

Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry, a colonial lawyer, wrote one of the earliest accounts of Vodou in Saint-Domingue. In this excerpt, Moreau de Saint-Méry connects Vodou to Benin in Africa and the snake cult there. He also indicates the presence of a more intense form of Vodou known as "Petro." Moreau de Saint-Méry believed this branch of Vodou originated with Don Pedro, "a Negro of Spanish origin."

According to the Arada Negroes [from Togo and Benin in Africa], who are the true followers of Vodou in the colony and guardians of its rules and principles, Vodou means an all-powerful, supernatural being that controls everything that happens on earth. This being is the nonpoisonous snake....This snake possesses knowledge of the past, present, and future. Yet it agrees to share its power. It makes its wishes known only through a high priest chosen by its followers and more particularly through a Negress whom the priest's love has raised to the rank of high priestess. These two ministers, who claim to be inspired by the god... decide if the snake accepts a candidate's admission into the group, and they lay down the duties...the candidate must fulfill. They also receive presents and offerings the god expects in due homage. To disobey them is to resist the god itself and to risk the greatest misfortune....

On selected days the Vodou king and queen preside over meetings following African practices, to which creole custom has added several variants and certain features that reveal European influence...The real Vodou meetings, those that have lost least of their original purity, are held only in secret beneath the cover of night....On each occasion, the king and queen administer an oath of secrecy that is the key element of the association. To make it the more imposing, it is accompanied by the most horrible things a deranged mind can dream up....Each member, according to his needs and his seniority in the association, comes forward to put requests to the Vodou. Most ask for the ability to influence their master's mind....Some seek more money; others want the gift of attracting a woman who is uninterested in them, or recovery from an illness, or a long life, or to win back an unfaithful mistress....Requests represent every conceivable passion, and those with criminal ends are not always well disguised.

The Vodou king meditates upon each invocation until the spirit acts in him. Suddenly, he takes down the box containing the snake and has the Vodou queen stand on it. As soon as the sacred abode is beneath her feet...she is penetrated by the god. She trembles, her whole body goes into a convulsive state, and the oracle speaks through her mouth. According to her wishes, her self-interest, and caprice, she issues in the name of the snake, like laws with no appeal, whatever orders it pleases her to make to the assembled idiots...who invariably obey what is prescribed to them....Afterwards... offerings are made...which pay for the expenses of the meeting, and provide assistance to present or absent members who are in need....

After that, the Vodou dance begins....The agitation goes from one to another round the circle, and everyone begins to move as if their shoulders, head, and upper body seem to be dislocated....The madness goes on increasing, stimulated by the consumption of alcohol....Some pass out; others go into a sort of rage; but all exhibit a sort of nervous trembling they appear unable to control, turning round and round....[T]his sort of magnetism [has caused] whites found spying on the sect's secret practices and who were touched by the member that discovered them to sometimes begin dancing and agree to pay the Vodou queen to put an end to this punishment. However...no member of the police force, which has declared war on Vodou, has ever felt the compulsion to dance, which would no doubt have kept the dancers from having to flee.

Perhaps to allay the fears this mysterious Vodou cult causes in the colony, a show is made of dancing it in public to the sound of drums and handclapping. It is even followed with a meal at which only poultry is eaten. But I can assure you this is only another ruse to mislead the vigilance of the magistrates and to better secure the success of these sinister meetings. They are not for amusement and pleasure but rather a school where weak minds give themselves over to a domination that in a thousand ways could prove to be fatal.... Nothing is more dangerous than this Vodou cult, which is founded upon the idea that those adorned with the title of ministers of this being know and can do every-thing. It is ridiculous but a potentially terrible weapon.

Who would believe that Vodou is surpassed b another phenomenon

that also has been labeled a dance? In 1768, a Negro of Spanish origin from Petit Goâve, taking advantage of the gullibility of the Negroes with his superstitious practices, gave them the idea for a dance similar to Vodou but with faster movements. To make it even more effective, the Negroes put well crushed gunpowder in the rum they drink when dancing. Called Don Pèdre's Dance, or simply the Don Pedre, it has been known to kill Negroes. Even spectators, electrified by the convulsive spectacle, share the intoxication of the performers and bring on by their singing and rapid rhythm a crisis that in some degree affects both groups. It has been necessary to ban the Don Pèdre dance, imposing penalties that are severe but sometimes without effect.